1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a refrigerator incorporating an automatic ice maker. The ice maker includes a temperature sensing element which senses the temperature of an ice tray so that completion of an ice making operation is detected based on the temperature sensed by the temperature sensing element.
2. Background Information
In a refrigerator of the type described above, an ice maker according to the prior art assumes an ice making step has been completed when the temperature sensed by a temperature sensing element falls to a set temperature or below. When the ice is made, a drive mechanism is operated to remove ice from the ice tray. The automatic ice maker as described above is usually provided in an ice making compartment of the refrigerator. In this type of ice maker, when refrigerating efficiency is high in compartments of the refrigerator, the temperature sensed by the temperature sensing element may have fallen to the set temperature even when not all of the water in the ice tray has been frozen. To solve this problem, the above-mentioned set temperature is usually set at a relatively low temperature such as -15.degree. C. so that the complete freezing of the water in the ice tray is ensured even when the refrigerating efficiency is high, thereby preventing a faulty determination of the completion of the ice making step.
However, when the refrigerating efficiency is lower for some reason (for example, because of the increase in the quantity of water to be frozen), the temperature sensed by the temperature sensing element does not fall to the set temperature even when all of the water in the ice tray is completely frozen. Since the ice maker will not sense completion of the ice making step in such a case, the ice removing operation cannot be performed and accordingly, ice cannot be reserved in an ice reservoir.